SCU Engineering vs USC, UCD, Cal Poly, LMU

allemanau
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:03:00 +0000

Heya!

I’m a freshman, declared mechanical engineering, who just finished up first quarter, so I have limited insight to provide. What I can, though, I will.

SCU Engineering is very hands on. I have lots of friends at Cal and Oregon State who are mech and civil engineers and I’ve done far more than they have as far Solidworks (rendering software), design presentations, and the works go. Heck, they haven’t even started yet! Not only that, but the school just received a nice chunk of money to sponsor team-based engineering competitions open to all students – just last quarter, there was an aerospace engineering competition which required teams of six to get together and perform certain tasks, present ideas, etc, with a grand prize of $2000. I think two of the teams were composed of freshman and sophomores completely. The kicker was, this all took place under the direction of the NASA Ames Research Facility. Obviously, you know the Bay Area, and Silicon Valley, is a great place to be for any kind of engineering or business, the two schools which are considered excellent at SCU. We had several alumni come in and talk to us about their experience and current employment, and all are very well off thanks to the internships the school helped them find (one is an ME at Lockheed-Martin, some are going to graduate school on their employer’s dime).

Additionally, the school is probably paralleled by none other (except maybe Stanford) when it comes to class size. I think my biggest class is 40ish kids, and all of the classes are taught by professors. They’re all very available and have office hours at least twice a week. The focus is undergraduate, so many sophomores and even freshman get to work with professors on research, if they display interest.

95% of students will love the school. The issue is, I fall in the 5% that, after having been there for a quarter, find that the school’s strengths aren’t necessarily what they want/needed. I’m in the honors program, and have always been pretty self-directed. I love the school of engineering, but I don’t need the office hours or personal attention to do well. Nor do I need small classes. Additionally, I’m a bit prestige-centric, which I’m not afraid to admit. I always have been, and so attending a regionally well-known program vs. a well-known program nationally is tough to deal with. This is just me, though.

There are plenty of things I do like: the proximity to San Francisco, the weather, the campus is awesome, the engineering facilities and classrooms, the competitions the school provides, the library is a great place to study, and realistically, you won’t find the material varies much here vs. the top schools. But if you’re a person who wouldn’t be happy attending anything other than a Top 50 or Top 25, know that SCU probably won’t fill that hole in your soul. That has been my experience, at least. Hopefully somebody with more under their belt can tell you more than I can!